It is often desirable to coat seeds with various liquids including pesticides or fungicides. A machine for treating seeds or other particles with liquids is disclosed in my co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 434,033, filed Jan. 17, 1974 for APPARATUS FOR TREATING AND MIXING PARTICLES, now U.S. Pat. No. 3,912,231, issued Oct. 14, 1975.
Machines which have been designed for the treating of seeds or other particles with liquids generally are quite complex and are used to treat large volumes of seeds at special facilities. Careful regulation of the relative amounts of seeds and liquids is required, and such machines (particularly the liquid-handling parts) should be routinely cleaned and inspected. The seed-treating liquids which are used often are thick and viscous. Treating liquids of this type tend to be retained on the surfaces of the liquid-handling parts of such machines and particularly in the cups which may be employed to convey batches of treating liquid. When the machines are not in use, the liquid retained in the cups evaporates, leaving a solid residue or crust of e.g. a pesticide. When the machine is put into use again, the crust remaining from previous uses reduces the capacity of the cups and thus changes the ratio of seeds to liquid.
A seed-treating device which would be sufficiently inexpensive to be used by individual farmers for treating their seeds would be particularly valuable in the agricultural field. A machine of this type should have the capability of accurately and successfully treating small volumes of seed with a treating liquid. It should also be easily disassembled for cleaning, and particularly the liquid-handling parts of the device should retain little if any liquid when the treating liquid has been drained from the machine.